From The Public Domain Movie Database:
A group of lonely orphans are given broken toys for Christmas which is seen by Professor Grampy. The thoughtful inventor comes up with an idea to replace the toys with better ones, making the orphan's Christmas a memorable one.


This movie is part of the collection: Animation Shorts

Producer: Fleischer Studios
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Fleischer Studios

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: edselehr - - December 23, 2012
Subject: Pleasant Story with some Neat Innovative Animation
It looks like the beginning and end scenes were filmed miniature setpieces shot in color! For 1936, that's pretty cool! The 3-d motion is too clean and correct for it to be animation.

Reviewer: CartoonChick - - December 6, 2010
Subject: Hypnotic Theme Song
This version appears to have the ending, which is just more of the insane singing. The image quality is also superior. http://www.archive.org/details/ChristmasComesButOnceAYear-1936

While probably really cool in 1936, it's a lttle creepy today - in a good way. It's a nice, mindless story. Top rating for the just the theme song! It's hypnotic.

Christmas comes but once a year.
Now it's here. Now it's here.
Bringing lots of joy and cheer.
Tra, la, la, la, la!
You and me, and he, and she,
and we are glad because.
Why? Because, because, because,
There is a Santa Claus.
Oh, Christmas comes but once a year.
Now it's here. Now it's here.
Bringing lots of joy and cheer.
Tra, la, la, la, la!

I made a version with closed captions and an interactive trancript. You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p17kBv8F5I
Leave a comment if you note a mistake and I'll gladly correct it.

Reviewer: Dark Moon - - June 2, 2009
Subject: Missing poir-sons!
Prof. Grampy, and Pudgy, too-- but someone's missing... Where the heck is Betty Boop?? Perhaps this was a spin-off attempt?

The tail end of the film got clipped off in the video, but there is enough included so that we get the point.

And, oh yeah-- the theme song? Variation on Grampy's theme, first introduced with Grampy's first cartoon, 'Betty Boop and Grampy', available at http://www.archive.org/details/bb_and_grampy

Reviewer: Spuzz - - July 27, 2008
Subject: But insanity is all the time!
Fairly... ODD cartoon here about a curiously understaffed orphanage (Um, I guess the staff took off for Christmas?). Kids wake up for Christmas to find that their toys are pretty banged up and fall apart instantly. So the kids wail! Luckily, Grampy hears all this, and because he's uh, slightly insane, creates toys from everyday objects found in the house. This is all very strange, and very beautifully animated (the beginning and ending are in a 3-d type format). And oh yeah, the theme song is pretty insane.